ERO Boston arrests unlawfully present Guatemalan citizen charged with rape of a child
BOSTON — Enforcement and Removal Operations (ERO) Boston arrested an unlawfully present Guatemalan citizen Sept. 19 in Beverly. The Guatemalan citizen was recently arrested by local police and arraigned on charges of aggravated rape and indecent assault and battery on a child.
“We cannot tolerate the presence of suspected sexual predators who are unlawfully present in our communities,” said ERO Boston Field Office Director Todd Lyons. "I’m proud of our ERO Boston officers who show their commitment daily to protecting public safety. It’s because of their dedication that this suspected predator was located and apprehended.”
The 37-year-old Guatemalan citizen unlawfully entered the United States and was apprehended by U.S. Border Patrol near the Northern Border in Richford, Vermont, in April 2016. He was transferred into ICE custody and subsequently released on an immigration bond pending removal proceedings. In December 2022, local police arrested the Guatemalan native and he was arraigned in the district court in Salem on charges of indecent assault and battery on a child and rape of a child with force. In March 2023, the case was transferred to Essex County Superior Court, where he was arraigned on two counts of aggravated rape of a child.
Despite ERO Boston’s issuance of an immigration detainer seeking custody of the Guatemalan native, he was released under house arrest conditions with an electronic monitoring device following his arraignment and pending a court hearing on his charges. On Sept. 19, ERO Boston officers arrested him as an individual amenable to removal under federal immigration law. ERO Boston will seek his removal and he will remain in ICE custody pending a hearing before a federal immigration judge.
Noncitizens placed into removal proceedings receive their legal due process from federal immigration judges in the immigration courts, which are administered by the Justice Department’s Executive Office for Immigration Review (EOIR). EOIR is an agency within the U.S. Department of Justice and is separate from the Department of Homeland Security and U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE). Immigration judges in these courts make decisions based on the merits of each individual case, determining if a noncitizen is subject to a final order of removal or eligible for certain forms of relief from removal. Once a noncitizen is subject to a final order of removal issued by an immigration judge or other lawful means, ICE officers may carry out the removal.
ERO officers make enforcement decisions on a case-by-case basis in a professional and responsible manner, informed by their experience as law enforcement officials and in a way that best protects against the greatest threats to the homeland and the integrity of U.S. immigration laws.
In fiscal year 2022, ERO arrested 46,396 noncitizens with criminal histories. This group had 198,498 associated charges and convictions, including 21,531 assault offenses; 8,164 sex and sexual assault offenses; 5,554 weapons offenses; 1,501 homicide-related offenses; and 1,114 kidnapping offenses.
For more news and information on how the ERO Boston field office carries out its immigration enforcement mission, follow us on X, formerly known as Twitter, @EROBoston.
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